


keep shut after dark

by kuro49



Series: thirty days of writing '18 [19]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Drabble, Gen, post batcat wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 01:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16609163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49
Summary: If misery loves company, then Dick can be the company here because Bruce has never once been short on misery.





	keep shut after dark

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: keep shut after dark
> 
> set after the batcat wedding as a giant roll of my eyes at dc for pulling another coward move.

 

If misery loves company, then Dick can be the company here because Bruce has never once been short on misery.

Dick’s been to space and back, kissed an alien princess on the mouth. He hates to admit this almost as much as Bruce hates to even think to feeling a single emotion outside of vengeance and justice. Dick has zero inclination to share with the class when the skies go dark. If this is Pandora’s box, he makes sure it is closed and locked with the key thrown to where he doesn’t know to look.

Dick’s never been dedicated to Gotham.

The city sprawls beneath his feet but that is just it. It is a single city among many. He knows it as home but home is not simply a place.

Dick Grayson’s dedication has always been for Bruce Wayne. Regardless of whether or not the man deserves it.

”B,” Dick starts, knowing just how well this can go when he drops down right next to where Batman stays perched. “We need to talk.”

Bruce turns sharply at that, maybe it is ingrained instinct to their run before Dick quite literally ran to Blüdhaven.

Dick has no idea why Bruce is pretending to be surprised when they both know what has happened and what needs to happen. Dick has never been good with letting things go. “So, what happened?”

Dick means the wedding, with Selina, and how she isn’t here with him.

Bruce turns back to the city and they can both hear the distant wail of police sirens heading to a convenient store robbery just north of the Bowery.

“You know exactly what happened.” Bruce says, almost a full minute later.

“Maybe I care about your version of it.”

For every contingency Bruce can plan for, the difference between them is that Bruce Wayne ties himself intrinsically to his identity as Batman without any other fail safe to fall back on. Dick does not, he is Dick Grayson above any mantle he takes for himself: Robin, Nightwing, Batman, Agent 37 are all Dick first and foremost. Maybe that’s his secret to all this.

“My version doesn’t matter.”

“You can keep thinking that but you know what,” Dick says to him, sounding like they have known each other for exactly way too long for him to let Bruce get away with this so easily. “I’m still going to be here when you finally change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

It bears repeating. Bruce knows he has Dick there to save him even when he probably doesn’t deserve it. Beneath the cowl, Bruce might be smiling without a single twitch to his mouth. It is in his eyes and how it crinkles in the corners. Dick knows this, he also knows plenty more like it. The skies are some deep, dark shade of black when he turns back to it.

“I know, B.”

When he falls, it is not without the same precaution. One of them is always going to hit the ground first. 

 


End file.
